1 00:01:12,500 --> 00:01:18,339 This city in Ukraine was once home to almost 50,000 people. 2 00:01:18,923 --> 00:01:23,052 It had everything a community would need for a comfortable life. 3 00:01:24,220 --> 00:01:26,639 [INDISTINCT CHATTER] 4 00:01:26,722 --> 00:01:32,394 But on the 26th of April, 1986, it suddenly became uninhabitable. 5 00:01:34,396 --> 00:01:38,692 The nearby nuclear power station of Chernobyl exploded. 6 00:01:38,776 --> 00:01:41,654 [HELICOPTER HOVERING] 7 00:01:42,655 --> 00:01:47,284 And in less than 48 hours, the city was evacuated. 8 00:01:50,788 --> 00:01:52,998 No one has lived here since. 9 00:02:03,843 --> 00:02:10,224 The explosion was a result of bad planning and human error. Mistakes. 10 00:02:11,392 --> 00:02:17,064 It triggered an environmental catastrophe that had an impact across Europe. 11 00:02:17,982 --> 00:02:23,487 Many people regarded it as the most costly in the history of mankind. 12 00:02:25,614 --> 00:02:28,951 But Chernobyl was a single event. 13 00:02:29,743 --> 00:02:34,123 The true tragedy of our time is still unfolding across the globe, 14 00:02:34,206 --> 00:02:36,500 barely noticeable from day to day. 15 00:02:37,334 --> 00:02:41,172 I'm talking about the loss of our planet's wild places, 16 00:02:41,255 --> 00:02:43,174 its biodiversity. 17 00:02:50,431 --> 00:02:54,351 The living world is a unique and spectacular marvel. 18 00:02:55,895 --> 00:03:00,524 Billions of individuals, and millions of kinds of plants and animals... 19 00:03:00,608 --> 00:03:01,483 [BIRDS CHIRPING] 20 00:03:01,567 --> 00:03:04,486 ...dazzling in their variety and richness. 21 00:03:06,614 --> 00:03:10,534 Working together to benefit from the energy of the sun 22 00:03:11,035 --> 00:03:13,162 and the minerals of the earth. 23 00:03:15,289 --> 00:03:20,711 Leading lives that interlock in such a way that they sustain each other. 24 00:03:22,796 --> 00:03:28,177 We rely entirely on this finely tuned life-support machine. 25 00:03:29,637 --> 00:03:34,475 And it relies on its biodiversity to run smoothly. 26 00:03:39,730 --> 00:03:46,403 Yet the way we humans live on Earth now is sending biodiversity into a decline. 27 00:03:46,487 --> 00:03:48,906 [LEAVES RUSTLING] 28 00:03:51,951 --> 00:03:56,413 This too is happening as a result of bad planning and human error 29 00:03:57,289 --> 00:04:01,168 and it too will lead to what we see here. 30 00:04:04,421 --> 00:04:07,883 A place in which we cannot live. 31 00:04:12,596 --> 00:04:14,348 The natural world is fading. 32 00:04:14,431 --> 00:04:18,269 The evidence is all around. It's happened in my lifetime. 33 00:04:18,352 --> 00:04:20,562 I've seen it with my own eyes. 34 00:04:21,230 --> 00:04:25,901 This film is my witness statement and my vision for the future, 35 00:04:26,568 --> 00:04:30,281 the story of how we came to make this our greatest mistake, 36 00:04:30,364 --> 00:04:34,785 and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right. 37 00:04:52,428 --> 00:04:57,057 I am David Attenborough, and I am 93. 38 00:04:57,975 --> 00:05:00,561 I've had the most extraordinary life. 39 00:05:01,353 --> 00:05:05,107 It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. 40 00:05:06,066 --> 00:05:08,360 [SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY] 41 00:05:11,155 --> 00:05:13,174 ATTENBOROUGH: I've been lucky enough to spend my life 42 00:05:13,198 --> 00:05:15,617 exploring the wild places of our planet. 43 00:05:18,746 --> 00:05:21,248 I've traveled to every part of the globe. 44 00:05:28,088 --> 00:05:33,927 I've experienced the living world firsthand in all its variety and wonder. 45 00:05:36,847 --> 00:05:41,143 In truth, I couldn't imagine living my life in any other way. 46 00:05:44,605 --> 00:05:49,651 I've always had a passion to explore, to have adventures, 47 00:05:50,152 --> 00:05:52,780 to learn about the wilds beyond. 48 00:05:52,863 --> 00:05:54,406 [EXCLAIMING IN SURPRISE] 49 00:05:54,490 --> 00:05:55,741 And I'm still learning. 50 00:05:56,700 --> 00:05:57,701 Boo! 51 00:05:57,785 --> 00:06:01,288 As much now as I did when I was a boy. 52 00:06:02,414 --> 00:06:04,124 [BIRDS CHIRPING] 53 00:06:18,889 --> 00:06:21,183 It was a very different world back then. 54 00:06:22,726 --> 00:06:27,356 We had very little understanding of how the living world actually worked. 55 00:06:30,150 --> 00:06:32,778 It was called natural history 56 00:06:32,861 --> 00:06:35,739 because that's essentially what it was all about... 57 00:06:37,199 --> 00:06:38,450 history. 58 00:06:42,287 --> 00:06:44,373 It was a great place to come to as a boy, 59 00:06:44,456 --> 00:06:49,753 because this is, um, ironstone workings, but it was disused. 60 00:06:49,837 --> 00:06:51,839 All this was absolutely clear, it was... 61 00:06:51,922 --> 00:06:54,007 only just stopped being a working quarry. 62 00:07:07,729 --> 00:07:11,441 When I was a boy, I spent all my spare time 63 00:07:11,525 --> 00:07:14,194 searching through rocks in places like this... 64 00:07:15,612 --> 00:07:17,030 for buried treasure. 65 00:07:20,284 --> 00:07:21,284 Fossils. 66 00:07:22,870 --> 00:07:25,122 It's a creature called an ammonite. 67 00:07:25,205 --> 00:07:28,500 And in life the animal itself lived in the chamber here 68 00:07:28,584 --> 00:07:31,670 and spread out its tentacles to catch its prey. 69 00:07:33,297 --> 00:07:36,758 And it lived about 180 million years ago. 70 00:07:37,885 --> 00:07:42,473 This particular one has a scientific name of Tiltonicerus, 71 00:07:42,556 --> 00:07:46,143 because the first one ever was found near this quarry 72 00:07:46,226 --> 00:07:49,021 here in Tilton, in the middle of England. 73 00:07:50,439 --> 00:07:55,903 Over time, I began to learn something about the earth's evolutionary history. 74 00:07:56,778 --> 00:08:00,908 By and large, it's a story of slow, steady change. 75 00:08:03,577 --> 00:08:08,790 Over billions of years, nature has crafted miraculous forms, 76 00:08:08,874 --> 00:08:13,003 each more complex and accomplished than the last. 77 00:08:15,255 --> 00:08:18,717 It's an achingly intricate labor. 78 00:08:22,846 --> 00:08:26,308 And then, every hundred million years or so, 79 00:08:26,391 --> 00:08:29,686 after all those painstaking processes, 80 00:08:29,770 --> 00:08:34,858 something catastrophic happens, a mass extinction. 81 00:08:35,943 --> 00:08:41,573 Great numbers of species disappear and are suddenly replaced by a few. 82 00:08:43,659 --> 00:08:45,953 All that evolution undone. 83 00:08:48,038 --> 00:08:51,583 You can see it. A line in the rock layers. 84 00:08:51,667 --> 00:08:56,421 A boundary that marks a profound, rapid, global change. 85 00:08:57,172 --> 00:09:00,884 Below the line are a multitude of lifeforms. 86 00:09:02,427 --> 00:09:04,429 Above, very few. 87 00:09:07,516 --> 00:09:13,230 A mass extinction has happened five times in life's four-billion-year history. 88 00:09:15,816 --> 00:09:17,276 The last time it happened 89 00:09:17,359 --> 00:09:21,738 was the event that brought the end of the age of the dinosaurs. 90 00:09:22,990 --> 00:09:26,618 A meteorite impact triggered a catastrophic change 91 00:09:26,702 --> 00:09:28,829 in the earth's conditions. 92 00:09:31,540 --> 00:09:35,919 75% of all species were wiped out. 93 00:09:38,922 --> 00:09:42,843 Life had no option but to rebuild. 94 00:09:44,636 --> 00:09:50,225 For 65 million years, it's been at work reconstructing the living world... 95 00:09:52,144 --> 00:09:57,566 until we come to the world we know... our time. 96 00:10:05,407 --> 00:10:08,785 Scientists call it the Holocene. 97 00:10:14,291 --> 00:10:17,628 The Holocene has been one of the most stable periods 98 00:10:17,711 --> 00:10:19,838 in our planet's great history. 99 00:10:19,921 --> 00:10:22,174 [BIRDS CHIRPING] 100 00:10:22,257 --> 00:10:27,638 For 10,000 years, the average temperature has not wavered up or down 101 00:10:27,721 --> 00:10:29,931 by more than one degree Celsius. 102 00:10:33,935 --> 00:10:37,397 And the rich and thriving living world around us 103 00:10:37,981 --> 00:10:40,525 has been key to this stability. 104 00:10:44,696 --> 00:10:51,119 Phytoplankton at the ocean's surface and immense forests straddling the north 105 00:10:51,203 --> 00:10:56,249 have helped to balance the atmosphere by locking away carbon. 106 00:10:59,169 --> 00:11:01,004 Huge herds on the plains 107 00:11:01,088 --> 00:11:06,259 have kept the grasslands rich and productive by fertilizing the soils. 108 00:11:12,182 --> 00:11:15,977 Mangroves and coral reefs along thousands of miles of coast 109 00:11:16,561 --> 00:11:19,064 have harbored nurseries of fish species 110 00:11:19,147 --> 00:11:23,777 that, when mature, then range into open waters. 111 00:11:30,409 --> 00:11:35,372 A thick belt of jungles around the equator has piled plant on plant 112 00:11:35,455 --> 00:11:38,667 to capture as much of the sun's energy as possible, 113 00:11:39,251 --> 00:11:43,004 adding moisture and oxygen to the global air currents. 114 00:11:47,342 --> 00:11:50,387 And the extent of the polar ice has been critical, 115 00:11:50,470 --> 00:11:53,640 reflecting sunlight back off its white surface, 116 00:11:54,349 --> 00:11:56,309 cooling the whole earth. 117 00:12:00,272 --> 00:12:05,026 The biodiversity of the Holocene helped to bring stability, 118 00:12:06,153 --> 00:12:12,617 and the entire living world settled into a gentle, reliable rhythm... 119 00:12:13,952 --> 00:12:15,454 the seasons. 120 00:12:15,537 --> 00:12:16,455 [THUNDER RUMBLING] 121 00:12:16,538 --> 00:12:18,081 [LOWING] 122 00:12:23,211 --> 00:12:24,671 On the tropical plains, 123 00:12:24,754 --> 00:12:29,968 the dry and rainy seasons would switch every year like clockwork. 124 00:12:33,722 --> 00:12:38,351 In Asia, the winds would create the monsoon on cue. 125 00:12:38,435 --> 00:12:40,228 [THUNDER RUMBLING] 126 00:12:46,234 --> 00:12:51,615 In the northern regions, the temperatures would lift in March, triggering spring, 127 00:12:52,782 --> 00:12:57,913 and stay high until they dipped in October and brought about autumn. 128 00:12:57,996 --> 00:12:59,748 [BIRDS CHIRPING AND CHATTERING] 129 00:13:02,167 --> 00:13:05,879 The Holocene was our Garden of Eden. 130 00:13:05,962 --> 00:13:08,632 Its rhythm of seasons was so reliable 131 00:13:08,715 --> 00:13:12,385 that it gave our own species a unique opportunity. 132 00:13:12,469 --> 00:13:15,013 [MOOING] 133 00:13:15,096 --> 00:13:17,724 We invented farming. 134 00:13:20,644 --> 00:13:25,565 We learnt how to exploit the seasons to produce food crops. 135 00:13:27,442 --> 00:13:31,488 The history of all human civilization followed. 136 00:13:33,406 --> 00:13:37,118 Each generation able to develop and progress 137 00:13:37,202 --> 00:13:40,705 only because the living world could be relied upon 138 00:13:40,789 --> 00:13:43,250 to deliver us the conditions we needed. 139 00:13:46,586 --> 00:13:51,675 The pace of progress was unlike anything to be found in the fossil record. 140 00:13:54,928 --> 00:13:59,474 Our intelligence changed the way in which we evolved. 141 00:14:00,267 --> 00:14:01,560 In the past, 142 00:14:01,643 --> 00:14:07,732 animals had to develop some physical ability to change their lives. 143 00:14:08,525 --> 00:14:11,820 But for us, an idea could do that. 144 00:14:11,903 --> 00:14:15,949 And the idea could be passed from one generation to the next. 145 00:14:18,535 --> 00:14:22,080 We were transforming what a species could achieve. 146 00:14:26,334 --> 00:14:32,591 A few millennia after this began, I grew up at exactly the right moment. 147 00:14:35,051 --> 00:14:37,804 The start of my career in my 20s 148 00:14:37,888 --> 00:14:41,975 coincided with the advent of global air travel. 149 00:14:43,518 --> 00:14:46,980 So, I had the privilege of being amongst the first 150 00:14:47,063 --> 00:14:51,234 to fully experience the bounty of life that had come about 151 00:14:51,318 --> 00:14:53,904 as a result of the Holocene's gentle climate. 152 00:15:14,090 --> 00:15:17,552 Wherever I went, there was wilderness. 153 00:15:18,470 --> 00:15:20,805 Sparkling coastal seas. 154 00:15:21,932 --> 00:15:23,558 Vast forests. 155 00:15:25,143 --> 00:15:27,145 Immense grasslands. 156 00:15:27,228 --> 00:15:31,191 You could fly for hours over the untouched wilderness. 157 00:15:33,944 --> 00:15:38,406 And there I was, actually being asked to explore these places 158 00:15:38,490 --> 00:15:42,118 and record the wonders of the natural world for people back home. 159 00:15:44,245 --> 00:15:45,747 And to begin with, it was quite easy. 160 00:15:45,830 --> 00:15:48,249 People had never seen pangolins before on television. 161 00:15:48,333 --> 00:15:50,043 They'd never seen sloths before. 162 00:15:50,126 --> 00:15:52,337 They had never seen the center of New Guinea before. 163 00:15:58,134 --> 00:16:00,387 It was the best time of my life. 164 00:16:01,638 --> 00:16:04,516 The best time of our lives. 165 00:16:05,225 --> 00:16:09,437 The Second World War was over, technology was making our lives easier. 166 00:16:11,982 --> 00:16:15,735 The pace of change was getting faster and faster. 167 00:16:16,486 --> 00:16:18,488 [INDISTINCT CHATTER] 168 00:16:21,491 --> 00:16:24,661 ATTENBOROUGH: It felt that nothing would limit our progress. 169 00:16:25,704 --> 00:16:28,790 The future was going to be exciting. 170 00:16:28,873 --> 00:16:31,835 It was going to bring everything we had ever dreamed of. 171 00:16:34,921 --> 00:16:39,300 This was before any of us were aware that there were problems. 172 00:16:52,897 --> 00:16:57,402 My first visit to East Africa was in 1960. 173 00:17:01,698 --> 00:17:06,911 Back then, it seemed inconceivable that we, a single species, 174 00:17:06,995 --> 00:17:12,500 might one day have the power to threaten the very existence of the wilderness. 175 00:17:16,087 --> 00:17:20,675 The Maasai word "Serengeti" means "endless plains." 176 00:17:21,301 --> 00:17:24,012 To those who live here, it's an apt description. 177 00:17:24,095 --> 00:17:26,765 You can be in one spot on the Serengeti, 178 00:17:26,848 --> 00:17:29,517 and the place is totally empty of animals, 179 00:17:29,601 --> 00:17:31,061 and then, the next morning... 180 00:17:31,144 --> 00:17:32,604 [BELLOWING] 181 00:17:32,687 --> 00:17:34,731 ...one million wildebeest. 182 00:17:34,814 --> 00:17:37,901 [BELLOWING] 183 00:17:41,196 --> 00:17:43,448 A quarter of a million zebra. 184 00:17:43,531 --> 00:17:46,034 [SNORTING] 185 00:17:48,161 --> 00:17:49,954 Half a million gazelle. 186 00:17:53,041 --> 00:17:54,667 A few days after that... 187 00:17:56,002 --> 00:17:59,339 and they're gone... over the horizon. 188 00:17:59,422 --> 00:18:03,510 You can be forgiven for thinking that these plains are endless 189 00:18:04,094 --> 00:18:06,304 when they could swallow up such a herd. 190 00:18:07,388 --> 00:18:08,973 It took a visionary scientist, 191 00:18:09,057 --> 00:18:12,727 Bernhard Grzimek, to explain that this wasn't true. 192 00:18:16,022 --> 00:18:21,444 He and his son used a plane to follow the herds over the horizon. 193 00:18:22,070 --> 00:18:24,447 00:22:04,459 ATTENBOROUGH: They ate meat rarely. 237 00:22:05,376 --> 00:22:09,922 The resources they used naturally renewed themselves. 238 00:22:10,882 --> 00:22:15,553 Working with their traditional technology, they were living sustainably, 239 00:22:16,137 --> 00:22:20,016 a lifestyle that could continue effectively forever. 240 00:22:20,808 --> 00:22:23,478 [SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE] 241 00:22:23,561 --> 00:22:26,314 ATTENBOROUGH: It was a stark contrast to the world I knew. 242 00:22:27,482 --> 00:22:30,735 A world that demanded more every day. 243 00:22:40,745 --> 00:22:44,999 I spent the latter half of the 1970s traveling the world, 244 00:22:45,083 --> 00:22:49,420 making a series I had long dreamed of called Life on Earth, 245 00:22:50,588 --> 00:22:54,926 the story of the evolution of life and its diversity. 246 00:22:56,719 --> 00:22:59,013 It was shot in 39 countries. 247 00:23:00,306 --> 00:23:03,684 We filmed 650 species, 248 00:23:03,768 --> 00:23:07,188 and we traveled one and a half million miles. 249 00:23:07,855 --> 00:23:10,316 That's the sort of commitment you need 250 00:23:10,399 --> 00:23:14,320 if you want to even begin making a portrait of the living world. 251 00:23:16,114 --> 00:23:17,406 But it was noticeable 252 00:23:17,490 --> 00:23:20,660 that some of these animals were becoming harder to find. 253 00:23:36,759 --> 00:23:39,428 When I filmed with the mountain gorillas, 254 00:23:39,512 --> 00:23:44,517 there were only 300 left in a remote jungle in Central Africa. 255 00:23:46,018 --> 00:23:48,437 Baby gorillas were at a premium, 256 00:23:48,521 --> 00:23:51,732 and poachers would kill a dozen adults to get one. 257 00:23:53,484 --> 00:23:58,030 I got as close as I did only because the gorillas were used to people. 258 00:24:00,324 --> 00:24:05,121 The only way to keep them alive was for rangers to be with them every day. 259 00:24:11,377 --> 00:24:16,591 The process of extinction that I'd seen as a boy... in the rocks, 260 00:24:17,592 --> 00:24:21,846 I now became aware was happening right there around me 261 00:24:22,638 --> 00:24:25,057 to animals with which I was familiar. 262 00:24:26,851 --> 00:24:28,561 Our closest relatives. 263 00:24:32,106 --> 00:24:34,108 And we were responsible. 264 00:24:36,944 --> 00:24:39,488 It revealed a cold reality. 265 00:24:40,948 --> 00:24:43,075 Once a species became our target, 266 00:24:43,576 --> 00:24:47,079 there was now nowhere on earth that it could hide. 267 00:24:59,759 --> 00:25:06,307 Whales were being slaughtered by fleets of industrial whaling ships in the 1970s. 268 00:25:10,519 --> 00:25:13,689 The largest whales, the blues, 269 00:25:13,773 --> 00:25:16,400 numbered only a few thousand by then. 270 00:25:21,113 --> 00:25:23,741 They were virtually impossible to find. 271 00:25:26,869 --> 00:25:32,208 We found humpbacks off Hawaii only by listening out for their calls. 272 00:25:32,792 --> 00:25:35,127 A moment ago, we made this recording 273 00:25:35,211 --> 00:25:39,131 with an underwater microphone here in the Pacific near Hawaii. 274 00:25:39,215 --> 00:25:40,383 Just listen to this. 275 00:25:42,009 --> 00:25:45,805 [WHALES SINGING] 276 00:25:47,390 --> 00:25:49,392 [WHALES CONTINUE SINGING] 277 00:25:52,353 --> 00:25:56,315 Recordings like these revealed that the songs of the humpbacks 278 00:25:56,399 --> 00:25:58,526 are long and complex. 279 00:25:59,860 --> 00:26:03,739 Humpbacks living in the same area learn their songs from each other. 280 00:26:04,615 --> 00:26:10,288 And the songs have distinct themes and variations which evolve over time. 281 00:26:10,371 --> 00:26:13,249 [WHALES SINGING] 282 00:26:19,338 --> 00:26:22,008 Their mournful songs were the key 283 00:26:22,091 --> 00:26:24,969 to transforming people's opinions about them. 284 00:26:27,013 --> 00:26:28,639 [SPEAKING RUSSIAN] 285 00:26:29,473 --> 00:26:32,226 [IN ENGLISH] 00:27:02,882 We have pursued animals to extinction many times in our history, 293 00:27:03,758 --> 00:27:08,220 but now that it was visible, it was no longer acceptable. 294 00:27:16,187 --> 00:27:20,691 The killing of whales turned from a harvest to a crime. 295 00:27:22,610 --> 00:27:26,155 A powerful shared conscience had suddenly appeared. 296 00:27:27,156 --> 00:27:30,701 Nobody wanted animals to become extinct. 297 00:27:32,161 --> 00:27:35,039 People were coming to care for the natural world... 298 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,668 as they were made aware of the natural world. 299 00:27:42,713 --> 00:27:47,301 And we now had the means to make people across the world aware. 300 00:27:47,968 --> 00:27:49,970 [THEME MUSIC PLAYING] 301 00:27:54,934 --> 00:28:00,731 ATTENBOROUGH: By the time Life on Earth aired in 1979, I had entered my 50s. 302 00:28:01,273 --> 00:28:04,360 There were twice the number of people on the planet 303 00:28:04,443 --> 00:28:06,695 as there were when I was born. 304 00:28:08,531 --> 00:28:14,703 You and I belong to the most widespread and dominant species of animal on earth. 305 00:28:14,787 --> 00:28:17,873 We're certainly the most numerous large animal. 306 00:28:17,957 --> 00:28:22,211 There are something like 4,000 million of us today, 307 00:28:22,294 --> 00:28:26,132 and we've reached this position with meteoric speed. 308 00:28:26,799 --> 00:28:30,553 It's all happened within the last 2,000 years or so. 309 00:28:30,636 --> 00:28:35,015 We seem to have broken loose from the restrictions 310 00:28:35,099 --> 00:28:39,019 that have governed the activities and numbers of other animals. 311 00:28:46,819 --> 00:28:48,571 ATTENBOROUGH: We had broken loose. 312 00:28:49,530 --> 00:28:53,200 We were apart from the rest of life on earth, 313 00:28:54,702 --> 00:28:57,204 living a different kind of life. 314 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,794 Our predators had been eliminated. 315 00:29:06,464 --> 00:29:09,300 Most of our diseases were under control. 316 00:29:11,218 --> 00:29:14,764 We had worked out how to produce food to order. 317 00:29:17,141 --> 00:29:20,394 There was nothing left to restrict us. 318 00:29:21,187 --> 00:29:23,147 Nothing to stop us. 319 00:29:24,398 --> 00:29:26,442 Unless we stopped ourselves... 320 00:29:27,568 --> 00:29:32,198 we would keep consuming the earth until we had used it up. 321 00:29:35,117 --> 00:29:38,704 Saving individual species or even groups of species 322 00:29:38,788 --> 00:29:40,539 would not be enough. 323 00:29:40,623 --> 00:29:43,959 Whole habitats would soon start to disappear. 324 00:30:12,071 --> 00:30:18,118 I first witnessed the destruction of an entire habitat in Southeast Asia. 325 00:30:19,036 --> 00:30:24,208 In the 1950s, Borneo was three-quarters covered with rainforest. 326 00:30:24,792 --> 00:30:27,272 YOUNG ATTENBOROUGH: We heard a crashing in the branches ahead. 327 00:30:28,254 --> 00:30:30,923 And there, only a few yards away, 328 00:30:31,006 --> 00:30:35,886 we spotted a great furry red form swaying in the trees. 329 00:30:37,012 --> 00:30:38,180 The orangutan. 330 00:30:41,851 --> 00:30:43,411 ATTENBOROUGH: By the end of the century, 331 00:30:43,435 --> 00:30:47,606 Borneo's rainforest had been reduced by half. 332 00:30:53,654 --> 00:30:57,324 Rainforests are particularly precious habitats. 333 00:30:58,158 --> 00:30:59,410 [BIRDS CHIRPING] 334 00:30:59,493 --> 00:31:03,080 More than half of the species on land live here. 335 00:31:07,835 --> 00:31:12,756 They're places in which evolution's talent for design soars. 336 00:31:27,521 --> 00:31:29,648 [BIRDS SQUAWKING] 337 00:31:37,072 --> 00:31:40,284 [CLICKING] 338 00:31:57,843 --> 00:32:03,390 Many of the millions of species in the forest exist in small numbers. 339 00:32:06,018 --> 00:32:09,355 Every one has a critical role to play. 340 00:32:14,401 --> 00:32:18,447 Orangutan mothers have to spend ten years with their young, 341 00:32:18,530 --> 00:32:22,326 teaching them which fruits are worth eating. 342 00:32:25,663 --> 00:32:27,081 Without this training, 343 00:32:27,164 --> 00:32:30,918 they would not complete their role in dispersing seeds. 344 00:32:32,378 --> 00:32:36,840 The future generations of many tree species would be at risk. 345 00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:42,346 And tree diversity is the key to a rainforest. 346 00:32:42,429 --> 00:32:46,016 [BIRDS CHIRPING] 347 00:32:46,100 --> 00:32:49,061 In a single small patch of tropical rainforest, 348 00:32:49,144 --> 00:32:52,356 there could be 700 different species of tree, 349 00:32:52,439 --> 00:32:56,110 as many as there are in the whole of North America. 350 00:32:57,069 --> 00:33:03,534 And yet, this is what we've been turning this dizzying diversity into. 351 00:33:05,035 --> 00:33:08,080 A monoculture of oil palm. 352 00:33:11,625 --> 00:33:15,838 A habitat that is dead in comparison. 353 00:33:19,466 --> 00:33:23,971 And you see this curtain of green with occasionally birds in it, 354 00:33:25,431 --> 00:33:27,850 and you think it's perhaps okay. 355 00:33:27,933 --> 00:33:29,351 But if you get in a helicopter, 356 00:33:29,435 --> 00:33:32,771 you see that that is a strip about half a mile wide. 357 00:33:33,605 --> 00:33:35,232 And beyond that strip, 358 00:33:35,315 --> 00:33:40,571 there is nothing but regimented rows of oil palms. 359 00:33:49,663 --> 00:33:53,542 There is a double incentive to cut down forests. 360 00:33:55,502 --> 00:33:57,254 People benefit from the timber... 361 00:33:57,838 --> 00:34:02,134 and then benefit again from farming the land that's left behind. 362 00:34:03,260 --> 00:34:05,596 [CHAINSAW REVS] 363 00:34:15,856 --> 00:34:21,487 Which is why we've cut down three trillion trees across the world. 364 00:34:21,570 --> 00:34:25,991 Half of the world's rainforests have already been cleared. 365 00:34:35,667 --> 00:34:37,252 What we see happening today 366 00:34:37,336 --> 00:34:42,382 is just the latest chapter in a global process spanning millennia. 367 00:34:48,764 --> 00:34:53,727 The deforestation of Borneo has reduced the population of orangutan 368 00:34:53,811 --> 00:34:59,191 by two-thirds since I first saw one just over 60 years ago. 369 00:35:06,448 --> 00:35:09,201 We can't cut down rainforests forever, 370 00:35:09,284 --> 00:35:13,956 and anything that we can't do forever is by definition unsustainable. 371 00:35:15,124 --> 00:35:18,085 If we do things that are unsustainable, 372 00:35:18,168 --> 00:35:24,216 the damage accumulates ultimately to a point where the whole system collapses. 373 00:35:25,676 --> 00:35:29,596 No ecosystem, no matter how big, is secure. 374 00:35:32,057 --> 00:35:35,227 Even one as vast as the ocean. 375 00:35:39,982 --> 00:35:44,570 This habitat was the subject of the series The Blue Planet, 376 00:35:44,653 --> 00:35:47,281 which we were filming in the late '90s. 377 00:36:01,211 --> 00:36:06,675 It was... an astonishing vision of a completely unknown world, 378 00:36:06,758 --> 00:36:10,888 a world that had existed since the beginning of time. 379 00:36:18,979 --> 00:36:22,399 All sorts of things that you had no idea had ever existed, 380 00:36:22,482 --> 00:36:26,778 all in a multitude of colors, all unbelievably beautiful. 381 00:36:30,782 --> 00:36:35,579 And all of them completely undisturbed by your presence. 382 00:36:43,795 --> 00:36:47,883 For much of its expanse, the ocean is largely empty. 383 00:36:49,801 --> 00:36:53,138 But in certain places, there are hot spots 384 00:36:53,222 --> 00:36:55,933 where currents bring nutrients to the surface 385 00:36:56,016 --> 00:36:59,269 and trigger an explosion of life. 386 00:37:05,108 --> 00:37:09,112 In such places, huge shoals of fish gather. 387 00:37:17,287 --> 00:37:19,790 The problem is that our fishing fleets 388 00:37:19,873 --> 00:37:24,127 are just as good at finding those hot spots as are the fish. 389 00:37:26,004 --> 00:37:31,468 When they do, they're able to gather the concentrated shoals with ease. 390 00:37:35,472 --> 00:37:38,767 It was only in the '50s that large fleets 391 00:37:38,850 --> 00:37:42,312 first ventured out into international waters... 392 00:37:43,188 --> 00:37:46,817 to reap the open ocean harvest across the globe. 393 00:37:49,069 --> 00:37:53,907 Yet, they've removed 90% of the large fish in the sea. 394 00:38:01,665 --> 00:38:05,210 At first, they caught plenty of fish in their nets. 395 00:38:06,461 --> 00:38:09,089 But within only a few years, 396 00:38:09,172 --> 00:38:13,468 the nets across the globe were coming in empty. 397 00:38:15,137 --> 00:38:17,973 The fishing quickly became so poor 398 00:38:18,473 --> 00:38:23,061 that countries began to subsidize the fleets to maintain the industry. 399 00:38:28,191 --> 00:38:31,737 Without large fish and other marine predators, 400 00:38:31,820 --> 00:38:35,073 the oceanic nutrient cycle stutters. 401 00:38:41,872 --> 00:38:46,543 The predators help to keep nutrients in the ocean's sunlit waters, 402 00:38:46,626 --> 00:38:51,256 recycling them so that they can be used again and again by plankton. 403 00:38:56,053 --> 00:38:57,346 Without predators, 404 00:38:57,429 --> 00:39:00,640 nutrients are lost for centuries to the depths 405 00:39:00,724 --> 00:39:03,935 and the hot spots start to diminish. 406 00:39:05,103 --> 00:39:07,606 The ocean starts to die. 407 00:39:13,028 --> 00:39:17,491 Ocean life was also unravelling in the shallows. 408 00:39:23,038 --> 00:39:26,416 In 1998, a Blue Planet film crew 409 00:39:26,500 --> 00:39:29,836 stumbled on an event little known at the time. 410 00:39:33,507 --> 00:39:36,843 Coral reefs were turning white. 411 00:39:41,181 --> 00:39:45,394 The white color is caused by corals expelling algae 412 00:39:45,477 --> 00:39:48,563 that lives symbiotically within their body. 413 00:39:55,779 --> 00:39:57,280 When you first see it, 414 00:39:57,364 --> 00:40:01,493 you think perhaps that it's beautiful, and suddenly you realize it's tragic. 415 00:40:02,119 --> 00:40:04,830 Because what you're looking at is skeletons. 416 00:40:04,913 --> 00:40:07,332 Skeletons of dead creatures. 417 00:40:15,132 --> 00:40:19,094 The white corals are ultimately smothered by seaweed. 418 00:40:19,761 --> 00:40:25,434 And the reef turns from wonderland... to wasteland. 419 00:40:30,355 --> 00:40:33,733 At first, the cause of the bleaching was a mystery. 420 00:40:33,817 --> 00:40:38,530 But scientists started to discover that in many cases where bleaching occurred, 421 00:40:39,114 --> 00:40:41,116 the ocean was warming. 422 00:40:42,117 --> 00:40:43,118 For some time, 423 00:40:43,201 --> 00:40:46,746 climate scientists had warned that the planet would get warmer 424 00:40:46,830 --> 00:40:50,834 as we burned fossil fuels and released carbon dioxide 425 00:40:50,917 --> 00:40:54,296 and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. 426 00:40:57,799 --> 00:41:00,051 A marked change in atmospheric carbon 427 00:41:00,135 --> 00:41:03,680 has always been incompatible with a stable earth. 428 00:41:04,473 --> 00:41:08,310 It was a feature of all five mass extinctions. 429 00:41:13,356 --> 00:41:14,399 In previous events, 430 00:41:14,483 --> 00:41:19,237 it had taken volcanic activity up to one million years 431 00:41:19,321 --> 00:41:22,115 to dredge up enough carbon from within the earth 432 00:41:22,199 --> 00:41:24,075 to trigger a catastrophe. 433 00:41:26,369 --> 00:41:29,873 By burning millions of years' worth of living organisms 434 00:41:29,956 --> 00:41:33,168 all at once as coal and oil, 435 00:41:33,251 --> 00:41:37,297 we had managed to do so in less than 200. 436 00:41:39,299 --> 00:41:43,720 The global air temperature had been relatively stable till the '90s. 437 00:41:44,221 --> 00:41:47,265 But it now appeared this was only because the ocean 438 00:41:47,349 --> 00:41:52,020 was absorbing much of the excess heat, masking our impact. 439 00:41:55,315 --> 00:41:57,484 It was the first indication to me 440 00:41:57,567 --> 00:42:01,196 that the earth was beginning to lose its balance. 441 00:42:09,371 --> 00:42:11,873 The most remote habitat of all 442 00:42:11,957 --> 00:42:15,835 exists at the extreme north and south of the planet. 443 00:42:20,423 --> 00:42:24,302 I've visited the polar regions over many decades. 444 00:42:24,386 --> 00:42:26,096 [IMPERCEPTIBLE] 445 00:42:28,765 --> 00:42:32,310 They've always been a place beyond imagination... 446 00:42:32,894 --> 00:42:36,106 with scenery unlike anything else on earth... 447 00:42:37,774 --> 00:42:42,862 and unique species adapted to a life in the extreme. 448 00:42:46,616 --> 00:42:48,910 But that distant world is changing. 449 00:42:51,997 --> 00:42:57,002 In my time, I've experienced the warming of Arctic summers. 450 00:42:59,671 --> 00:43:01,715 We have arrived at locations 451 00:43:01,798 --> 00:43:05,927 expecting to find expanses of sea ice and found none. 452 00:43:09,139 --> 00:43:11,057 We've managed to travel by boat 453 00:43:11,141 --> 00:43:14,644 to islands that were impossible to get to historically 454 00:43:14,728 --> 00:43:17,689 because they were permanently locked in the ice. 455 00:43:20,692 --> 00:43:25,780 By the time Frozen Planet aired in 2011, 456 00:43:25,864 --> 00:43:28,992 the reasons for these changes was well established. 457 00:43:33,830 --> 00:43:37,459 The ocean has long since become unable to absorb 458 00:43:37,542 --> 00:43:41,713 all the excess heat caused by our activities. 459 00:43:42,589 --> 00:43:45,842 As a result, the average global temperature today 460 00:43:45,925 --> 00:43:50,388 is one degree Celsius warmer than it was when I was born. 461 00:43:55,935 --> 00:44:01,191 A speed of change that exceeds any in the last 10,000 years. 462 00:44:08,615 --> 00:44:14,329 Summer sea ice in the Arctic has reduced by 40% in 40 years. 463 00:44:16,623 --> 00:44:19,292 Our planet is losing its ice. 464 00:44:25,215 --> 00:44:31,096 This most pristine and distant of ecosystems is headed for disaster. 465 00:44:49,197 --> 00:44:52,450 Our imprint is now truly global. 466 00:44:53,243 --> 00:44:56,371 Our impact now truly profound. 467 00:44:56,955 --> 00:44:58,832 Our blind assault on the planet 468 00:44:58,915 --> 00:45:03,545 has finally come to alter the very fundamentals of the living world. 469 00:45:12,053 --> 00:45:17,142 We have overfished 30% of fish stocks to critical levels. 470 00:45:19,686 --> 00:45:24,065 We cut down over 15 billion trees each year. 471 00:45:24,149 --> 00:45:26,484 [WARBLING] 472 00:45:26,568 --> 00:45:31,322 By damming, polluting, and over-extracting rivers and lakes, 473 00:45:31,406 --> 00:45:37,078 we've reduced the size of freshwater populations by over 80%. 474 00:45:37,871 --> 00:45:41,499 We're replacing the wild with the tame. 475 00:45:45,795 --> 00:45:51,009 Half of the fertile land on earth is now farmland. 476 00:45:57,599 --> 00:46:03,271 70% of the mass of birds on this planet are domestic birds. 477 00:46:03,855 --> 00:46:06,774 The vast majority, chickens. 478 00:46:10,778 --> 00:46:15,950 We account for over one-third of the weight of mammals on earth. 479 00:46:16,910 --> 00:46:21,122 A further 60% are the animals we raise to eat. 480 00:46:26,377 --> 00:46:31,549 The rest, from mice to whales, make up just 4%. 481 00:46:34,928 --> 00:46:37,680 This is now our planet, 482 00:46:37,764 --> 00:46:41,059 run by humankind for humankind. 483 00:46:41,142 --> 00:46:44,729 There is little left for the rest of the living world. 484 00:46:51,110 --> 00:46:54,197 Since I started filming in the 1950s, 485 00:46:54,280 --> 00:46:59,869 on average, wild animal populations have more than halved. 486 00:47:02,664 --> 00:47:06,000 I look at these images now and I realize that, 487 00:47:06,084 --> 00:47:09,587 although as a young man I felt I was out there in the wild 488 00:47:09,671 --> 00:47:13,258 experiencing the untouched natural world... 489 00:47:13,841 --> 00:47:14,968 it was an illusion. 490 00:47:17,303 --> 00:47:22,225 Those forests and plains and seas were already emptying. 491 00:47:27,272 --> 00:47:30,275 Um, so, the world is not as wild as it was. 492 00:47:31,609 --> 00:47:35,071 Well, we've destroyed it. Not just ruined it. 493 00:47:35,154 --> 00:47:39,492 I mean, we have completely... well, destroyed that world. 494 00:47:39,576 --> 00:47:42,787 That non-human world is gone. 495 00:47:43,454 --> 00:47:47,208 Uh... The... Human beings have overrun the world. 496 00:48:29,334 --> 00:48:32,795 That is my witness statement. 497 00:48:33,463 --> 00:48:38,301 A story of global decline during a single lifetime. 498 00:48:43,264 --> 00:48:45,558 But it doesn't end there. 499 00:48:47,310 --> 00:48:49,562 If we continue on our current course, 500 00:48:49,646 --> 00:48:53,775 the damage that has been the defining feature of my lifetime 501 00:48:53,858 --> 00:48:58,279 will be eclipsed by the damage coming in the next. 502 00:49:09,957 --> 00:49:14,545 Science predicts that were I born today, 503 00:49:15,129 --> 00:49:17,840 I would be witness to the following. 504 00:49:22,845 --> 00:49:29,102 The Amazon Rainforest, cut down until it can no longer produce enough moisture, 505 00:49:29,936 --> 00:49:32,397 degrades into a dry savannah, 506 00:49:32,980 --> 00:49:35,775 bringing catastrophic species loss... 507 00:49:36,984 --> 00:49:40,405 and altering the global water cycle. 508 00:49:47,078 --> 00:49:51,958 At the same time, the Arctic becomes ice-free in the summer. 509 00:49:54,585 --> 00:49:56,754 Without the white ice cap, 510 00:49:56,838 --> 00:50:00,550 less of the sun's energy is reflected back out to space. 511 00:50:01,884 --> 00:50:05,430 And the speed of global warming increases. 512 00:50:11,811 --> 00:50:17,692 Throughout the north, frozen soils thaw, releasing methane, 513 00:50:18,192 --> 00:50:22,864 a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide, 514 00:50:23,990 --> 00:50:28,077 accelerating the rate of climate change dramatically. 515 00:50:35,710 --> 00:50:39,630 As the ocean continues to heat and becomes more acidic, 516 00:50:39,714 --> 00:50:42,925 coral reefs around the world die. 517 00:50:46,554 --> 00:50:49,474 Fish populations crash. 518 00:50:58,232 --> 00:51:04,197 Global food production enters a crisis as soils become exhausted by overuse. 519 00:51:13,331 --> 00:51:15,666 Pollinating insects disappear. 520 00:51:17,168 --> 00:51:18,168 00:53:45,900 is the only way across the crowd. 552 00:53:45,983 --> 00:53:47,443 [GROANING] 553 00:53:47,526 --> 00:53:50,071 Those beneath can get crushed to death. 554 00:53:56,202 --> 00:53:57,328 [WALRUSES GROANING] 555 00:54:07,505 --> 00:54:12,760 ATTENBOROUGH: We are facing nothing less than the collapse of the living world. 556 00:54:14,595 --> 00:54:18,015 The very thing that gave birth to our civilization. 557 00:54:19,433 --> 00:54:23,729 The thing we rely upon for every element of the lives we lead. 558 00:54:27,066 --> 00:54:29,193 No one wants this to happen. 559 00:54:29,860 --> 00:54:33,072 None of us can afford for it to happen. 560 00:54:36,575 --> 00:54:38,411 So, what do we do? 561 00:54:40,705 --> 00:54:42,415 It's quite straightforward. 562 00:54:43,374 --> 00:54:46,210 It's been staring us in the face all along. 563 00:54:48,587 --> 00:54:50,881 To restore stability to our planet, 564 00:54:51,799 --> 00:54:54,427 we must restore its biodiversity. 565 00:54:56,762 --> 00:54:59,140 The very thing that we've removed. 566 00:55:03,477 --> 00:55:07,481 It's the only way out of this crisis we have created. 567 00:55:10,317 --> 00:55:13,696 We must rewild the world. 568 00:55:13,779 --> 00:55:16,157 01:00:11,869 Morocco relied on imported oil and gas for almost all of its energy. 631 01:00:12,703 --> 01:00:16,624 Today, it generates 40% of its needs at home 632 01:00:17,374 --> 01:00:24,006 from a network of renewable power plants, including the world's largest solar farm. 633 01:00:28,010 --> 01:00:29,637 Sitting on the edge of the Sahara, 634 01:00:30,721 --> 01:00:33,349 and cabled directly into southern Europe, 635 01:00:33,932 --> 01:00:40,356 Morocco could be an exporter of solar energy by 2050. 636 01:00:47,112 --> 01:00:53,827 Within 20 years, renewables are predicted to be the world's main source of power. 637 01:00:55,162 --> 01:00:58,082 But we can make them the only source. 638 01:00:59,041 --> 01:01:05,422 It's crazy that our banks and our pensions are investing in fossil fuel... 639 01:01:06,382 --> 01:01:08,175 when these are the very things 640 01:01:08,258 --> 01:01:11,887 that are jeopardizing the future that we are saving for. 641 01:01:12,388 --> 01:01:13,972 [SIRENS WAILING] 642 01:01:14,640 --> 01:01:18,143 A renewable future will be full of benefits. 643 01:01:18,894 --> 01:01:22,106 Energy everywhere will be more affordable. 644 01:01:23,399 --> 01:01:26,402 Our cities will be cleaner and quieter. 645 01:01:27,611 --> 01:01:30,781 And renewable energy will never run out. 646 01:01:46,296 --> 01:01:51,927 The living world can't operate without a healthy ocean and neither can we. 647 01:01:58,475 --> 01:02:03,564 The ocean is a critical ally in our battle to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. 648 01:02:06,525 --> 01:02:10,904 The more diverse it is, the better it does that job. 649 01:02:14,408 --> 01:02:15,617 [WHALES SINGING] 650 01:02:28,464 --> 01:02:34,052 And, of course, the ocean is important to all of us as a source of food. 651 01:02:36,889 --> 01:02:40,267 Fishing is world's greatest wild harvest. 652 01:02:40,350 --> 01:02:43,645 And if we do it right, it can continue... 653 01:02:44,730 --> 01:02:48,108 because there's a win-win at play. 654 01:02:49,109 --> 01:02:51,153 The healthier the marine habitat, 655 01:02:51,236 --> 01:02:55,199 the more fish there will be, and the more there will be to eat. 656 01:03:02,664 --> 01:03:06,376 Palau is a Pacific Island nation 657 01:03:06,460 --> 01:03:11,298 reliant on its coral reefs for fish and tourism. 658 01:03:15,511 --> 01:03:17,846 When fish stocks began to reduce, 659 01:03:17,930 --> 01:03:22,100 the Palauans responded by restricting fishing practices 660 01:03:22,184 --> 01:03:26,021 and banning fishing entirely from many areas. 661 01:03:29,274 --> 01:03:33,070 Protected fish populations soon became so healthy, 662 01:03:33,153 --> 01:03:36,740 they spilt over into the areas open to fishing. 663 01:03:42,329 --> 01:03:43,372 As a result, 664 01:03:43,455 --> 01:03:47,709 the "no fish" zones have increased the catch of the local fishermen, 665 01:03:47,793 --> 01:03:51,964 while at the same time allowing the reefs to recover. 666 01:03:56,844 --> 01:04:01,473 Imagine if we committed to a similar approach across the world. 667 01:04:02,516 --> 01:04:07,646 Estimates suggest that "no fish" zones over a third of our coastal seas 668 01:04:07,729 --> 01:04:12,568 would be sufficient to provide us with all the fish we will ever need. 669 01:04:18,282 --> 01:04:20,158 In international waters, 670 01:04:20,242 --> 01:04:25,873 the UN is attempting to create the biggest "no fish" zone of all. 671 01:04:28,083 --> 01:04:31,753 In one act, this would transform the open ocean 672 01:04:31,837 --> 01:04:35,632 from a place exhausted by subsidized fishing fleets 673 01:04:36,216 --> 01:04:41,430 to a wilderness that will help us all in our efforts to combat climate change. 674 01:04:43,098 --> 01:04:45,809 The world's greatest wildlife reserve. 675 01:05:02,451 --> 01:05:04,536 When it comes to the land, 676 01:05:04,620 --> 01:05:08,290 we must radically reduce the area we use to farm, 677 01:05:08,373 --> 01:05:11,209 so that we can make space for returning wilderness. 678 01:05:11,293 --> 01:05:16,340 And the quickest and most effective way to do that is for us to change our diet. 679 01:05:17,049 --> 01:05:19,092 [BIRDS CHIRPING] 680 01:05:22,012 --> 01:05:24,681 Large carnivores are rare in nature 681 01:05:24,765 --> 01:05:28,435 because it takes a lot of prey to support each of them. 682 01:05:29,144 --> 01:05:31,146 [WILDEBEEST SNORTING] 683 01:05:35,108 --> 01:05:38,195 For every single predator on the Serengeti, 684 01:05:38,278 --> 01:05:41,365 there are more than 100 prey animals. 685 01:05:41,448 --> 01:05:43,450 757 01:12:58,468 --> 01:13:01,304 an alternative future comes into view. 758 01:13:04,891 --> 01:13:06,393 In this future, 759 01:13:06,976 --> 01:13:13,441 we discover ways to benefit from our land that help, rather than hinder, wilderness. 760 01:13:15,151 --> 01:13:21,116 Ways to fish our seas that enable them to come quickly back to life. 761 01:13:27,705 --> 01:13:32,210 And ways to harvest our forests sustainably. 762 01:13:35,839 --> 01:13:42,595 We will finally learn how to work with nature rather than against it. 763 01:13:45,265 --> 01:13:49,727 In the end, after a lifetime's exploration of the living world, 764 01:13:49,811 --> 01:13:52,105 I'm certain of one thing. 765 01:13:53,022 --> 01:13:55,984 This is not about saving our planet... 766 01:13:56,860 --> 01:13:59,446 it's about saving ourselves. 767 01:14:04,200 --> 01:14:10,540 The truth is, with or without us, the natural world will rebuild. 768 01:14:20,467 --> 01:14:24,721 In the 30 years since the evacuation of Chernobyl, 769 01:14:25,388 --> 01:14:29,017 the wild has reclaimed the space. 770 01:14:29,100 --> 01:14:30,935 [BIRDS CHIRPING] 771 01:14:40,278 --> 01:14:44,365 Today, the forest has taken over the city. 772 01:14:58,296 --> 01:15:03,009 It's a sanctuary for wild animals that are very rare elsewhere. 773 01:15:09,724 --> 01:15:14,771 And powerful evidence that however grave our mistakes, 774 01:15:14,854 --> 01:15:18,233 nature will ultimately overcome them. 775 01:15:22,737 --> 01:15:25,615 The living world will endure. 776 01:15:27,659 --> 01:15:31,412 We humans cannot presume the same. 777 01:15:34,249 --> 01:15:35,792 We've come this far 778 01:15:35,875 --> 01:15:39,712 because we are the smartest creatures that have ever lived. 779 01:15:44,467 --> 01:15:49,180 But to continue, we require more than intelligence. 780 01:15:51,224 --> 01:15:53,977 We require wisdom. 781 01:16:07,448 --> 01:16:11,911 There are many differences between humans and the rest of the species on earth, 782 01:16:12,495 --> 01:16:17,792 but one that has been expressed is that we alone are able to imagine the future. 783 01:16:19,127 --> 01:16:23,089 For a long time, I and perhaps you have dreaded that future. 784 01:16:24,090 --> 01:16:28,678 But it's now becoming apparent that it's not all doom and gloom. 785 01:16:29,762 --> 01:16:32,181 There's a chance for us to make amends, 786 01:16:32,932 --> 01:16:36,644 to complete our journey of development, manage our impact, 787 01:16:36,728 --> 01:16:41,399 and once again become a species in balance with nature. 788 01:16:42,483 --> 01:16:45,236 All we need is the will to do so. 789 01:16:45,737 --> 01:16:50,617 We now have the opportunity to create the perfect home for ourselves, 790 01:16:51,159 --> 01:16:57,206 and restore the rich, healthy, and wonderful world that we inherited. 791 01:16:58,541 --> 01:17:00,043 Just imagine that.